GUEST COLUMN: Chipping away at women's access to health care

Published: Wednesday, April 3, 2013 at 10:07 AM.

By JUDITH SELZER

Nearly 2 million women in Florida do not have access to adequate health care. Sadly, the Florida Legislature is not only doing nothing to help them — lawmakers are pushing legislation that would exacerbate the problem.

Instead of creating new hurdles to health care for women to jump over, legislators should be focused on reducing the number of uninsured women in this state. Instead, lawmakers are chipping away at women’s access to reproductive health care.

According to a new report by the Florida Association of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, titled “Women’s Health at Risk,” the lack of quality health care disproportionately impacts minority women. Florida also ranks second in the nation in the number of women and girls with HIV and 12th in teen pregnancies.

Every woman should have access to cancer screenings, annual checkups, birth control, and testing for and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.

While Tallahassee politicians are filing bills that would restrict women’s access to reproductive health care, they are also dragging their feet when it comes to expanding Medicaid health care, which would allow about 1 million more Floridians access to care.

This isn’t just bad politics. It’s bad public policy.

And it’s not happening only in Florida. From Arkansas to Wisconsin to North Dakota, politicians are attacking women in statehouses across the country. This level of hostility should be a wake-up call to everyone who cares about women’s health.

In Okaloosa County, this would help the nearly 14,000 women — or 18 percent — who do not have health insurance. They lack key preventive care and are left to rely on emergency clinics if they seek medical help at all.

They deserve better.

By expanding Medicaid statewide, nearly 5,000 more women in Okaloosa County would have access to health care. Statewide, more than 640,000 uninsured women would.

Lawmakers should listen to the electorate and stop their attacks on women’s health.

If anything, they should be working with women to improve their access to health care. If they cannot do that, they should leave well enough — and women — alone.

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Judith Selzer is vice president of public policy and communications for the Florida Association of Planned Parenthood Affiliates.

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Nearly 2 million women in Florida do not have access to adequate health care. Sadly, the Florida Legislature is not only doing nothing to help them — lawmakers are pushing legislation that would exacerbate the problem.

Instead of creating new hurdles to health care for women to jump over, legislators should be focused on reducing the number of uninsured women in this state. Instead, lawmakers are chipping away at women’s access to reproductive health care.

According to a new report by the Florida Association of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, titled “Women’s Health at Risk,” the lack of quality health care disproportionately impacts minority women. Florida also ranks second in the nation in the number of women and girls with HIV and 12th in teen pregnancies.

Every woman should have access to cancer screenings, annual checkups, birth control, and testing for and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.

While Tallahassee politicians are filing bills that would restrict women’s access to reproductive health care, they are also dragging their feet when it comes to expanding Medicaid health care, which would allow about 1 million more Floridians access to care.

This isn’t just bad politics. It’s bad public policy.

And it’s not happening only in Florida. From Arkansas to Wisconsin to North Dakota, politicians are attacking women in statehouses across the country. This level of hostility should be a wake-up call to everyone who cares about women’s health.

In Okaloosa County, this would help the nearly 14,000 women — or 18 percent — who do not have health insurance. They lack key preventive care and are left to rely on emergency clinics if they seek medical help at all.

They deserve better.

By expanding Medicaid statewide, nearly 5,000 more women in Okaloosa County would have access to health care. Statewide, more than 640,000 uninsured women would.

Lawmakers should listen to the electorate and stop their attacks on women’s health.

If anything, they should be working with women to improve their access to health care. If they cannot do that, they should leave well enough — and women — alone.

--

Judith Selzer is vice president of public policy and communications for the Florida Association of Planned Parenthood Affiliates.